PANAJI
As road accidents continue to be largely attributed to unending road works and indiscipline by motorists, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said that the Goa government will soon impose a 100 per cent ban on road digging without prior permission from the Public Works Department (PWD).
A circular in this regard will be issued shortly, with future violations attracting heavy penalties to be recovered from the concerned contractors and paid to the PWD.
“Time to time, there is a lack of coordination between departments. We have seen that after the road works are done, within 15 days, roads are dug up again whether for electricity, cable or water supply works. We have to tighten the noose on such things,” Sawant said, responding to a Calling Attention motion on rising road accidents.
The CM elaborated that the government is mulling recovery of road digging and restoration costs from contractors in cases where prior PWD approval is not obtained.
“It will be made mandatory to complete all cabling and pipeline works simultaneously during major road construction to avoid repeated excavations. Nearly 50 per cent of accidents in Goa are due to poor road conditions and signal issues, which also raise road safety concerns,” he added.
